Japan’s ‘soft’ power (2)

Japan’s soft power is palpable in many areas of the world, although, as one of my Japanese academic friends tells me, this power is slowly waning. Other East Asian countries, like South Korea, have taken the world by storm through their vast array of entertainment genres, from television series (K-drama) to music (mainly K-pop) and lately even Korean cuisine, as seen in many Korean barbecue joints popping up like mushrooms in many parts of the Philippines.

Nevertheless, the K-drama and K-pop phenomena are recent influencers. Long before these became household favorites in many parts of the world, Japanese products, cultural items, and cuisine were already globally appreciated. Japanese restaurants proliferate in many parts of the world. In my home city, General Santos, one shopping mall has at least three Japanese restaurants (or claiming to be such), as their names indicate. Even Cotabato City, a tiny suburb compared to Tokyo’s metropolis, has at least two small eateries serving some Japanese-style food, although it pales in comparison to food served in classic Japanese restaurants in Tokyo and anywhere else in Japan.

One distinctive feature of the Japanese national character is anticipatory thinking and way of life. This trait is easily seen in how they build their massive infrastructure and even their homes. For example, long lengths of underpasses have walking lanes with giant fans and telephone units. Motorists who experience engine trouble can get out of their vehicles and call for help, at least with some comfort provided by the gigantic wall fans.

All residents of apartments or dormitories are given notices of how garbage should be disposed of, even before we in the Philippines started to practice waste segregation. The Japanese solid waste management system requires that pieces of broken glass should be wrapped carefully in thick paper or cardboard so the one handling them would not get cuts from accidentally touching the broken glass pieces. Used batteries are separated from all other trash since they emit toxic fumes; they are also to be wrapped in a special plastic bag for this purpose. This is how they do ordinary tasks, being mindful that those who come after them will not have a hard time or will not be harmed by their recklessness in doing simple things like trash disposal.

As I cited in this column last week, Japan’s soft power has created a pool of scholars, academics, technocrats, social development workers, and public intellectuals (the latter is courtesy of another prominent Japanese donor agency, The Nippon Foundation). Many of them are now well-placed in their respective home offices or agencies in the Philippines. But perhaps the greatest impact of Japan’s soft power is its substantial financial and technical support to many programs in the Philippines, especially in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Japan is one of the biggest funders of multifarious development projects in the region, long before the onset of the new Bangsamoro government. More than two decades ago, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) has been helping many local governments and the regional government build badly needed roads and bridges, and other infrastructure, and contributed to peace-building efforts as well as in human resource capacity building. Starting in 2006, Jica supported peace and development projects in the autonomous region through the Japan-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development or J-BIRD.

Such support could be interpreted as Japan’s way of unloading its guilt of having committed atrocities against many Filipinos during World War II. It is a “checkbook” and backhanded way of acknowledging the wrongs it committed including the many women used for sex slavery (comfort women) by Japanese soldiers during World War II, but not exactly a straightforward recognition of those wrongs. This may not be genuine reparation. But perhaps this is way much better than what the dictator’s family has failed to do to the survivors of martial law atrocities in Bangsamoro. Until now, there is no acknowledgment, much less an apology, from the dictator’s family for such atrocities, and the possibility of getting it is much bleaker now compared to the previous Duterte presidency.

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